How to Improve English Pronunciation & Accent (3 Best Methods)

Are you confident in your English pronunciation?

If not, you’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, you’ll learn three ways to improve your English pronunciation.

Here they are:

1. Use (free) pronunciation lessons
2. Practice the Parrot technique
3. Do an accent inspection

These three methods will transform your pronunciation.

Do them and you’ll sound more like a native, with clearer pronunciation, and more confidence.

Bonus: Want to speak English well but don't have a practice partner? There's still a way!  I show you exactly how in my English speaking course.

Where should I send
the English course to?

Email

Get My English Course

The course has 8 lessons.
(Unsubscribe anytime with a single click.)

American or British Accent?

Before you can start improving your pronunciation, you must decide what kind of English accent to learn: American or British accent.

You must choose one over the other because they sound completely different.

One accent is not better that the other. Some people choose to learn the American accent because it’s more common in movies and TV shows. Others go with the British accent because it’s more popular in Europe (or they simply like the sound of it).

So how do you choose?

It’s simple.

Imagine yourself speaking English fluently. Do you see yourself talking with an American or British accent? That’s the accent you want to learn!

Now that you’ve chosen your accent, let’s discuss the first method.

Method #1: Use Pronunciation Lessons

YouTube is a great place the learn English pronunciation.

Just search for “English pronunciation” and you’ll find a lot of lessons created by English teachers.

Many of these teachers have experience working with English students, so they know all the common pronunciation mistakes English learners make.

They can point out things such as:

• Not pronouncing certain sounds clearly (R, L, and TH sounds).
• Saying different-sounding words the same way (advice vs. advise; seek vs. sick).
• Stressing the wrong syllables.
• Not linking words to sound more natural.

Pronunciation videos usually have a similar structure.

First, the teacher will point out a particular pronunciation error. Then she’ll say the correct pronunciation (and maybe show you the proper mouth and tongue position as well). Finally, she’ll say a few words or phrases out loud for you to repeat after.

This is an excellent way to learn English pronunciation and correct your mistakes. And it’s free!

My Experience Using Pronunciation Lessons

Prior to using these lessons, I thought my pronunciation was pretty decent.

But when I started using them, I realized I was making more pronunciation errors than I expected.

I learned a lot from these lessons. For instance, I learned that these word pairs are pronounced differently:

• advice vs. advise
• cheap vs. sheep
• have vs. half

Perhaps you already knew this. But I was genuinely surprised (and a little embarrassed). I always thought they sounded the same.

The Limitation of Pronunciation Lessons

Pronunciation lessons can teach you a lot of things.

The drawback is the amount of practice they provide.

In many lessons, the teacher may ask you to say only a few words or sentences.

Unfortunately, it takes a lot more practice than that to improve your pronunciation.

Because of this, pronunciation lessons should be used together with the next method.

Method #2: Learn English Pronunciation Using the Parrot Technique

This is the easiest way to improve your pronunciation.

I call it the Parrot technique because parrots are known to mimic human speech.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Find an audio/video clip in English.
2. Listen and repeat what you hear. Do your best to sound exactly like the person you’re copying.

This practice will help you get used to correct English pronunciation.

It’ll also train the muscles involved in speaking clear English. (These are muscles in your lips, your tongue, and your throat.)

I suggest you practice for 10 – 60 minutes a day. The faster you want your pronunciation to improve, the more time you must spend each day. (Back then, I was spending 15 minutes a day on this practice.)

This practice should be the backbone of your pronunciation improvement endeavor. At any given moment, you’ll either be doing this practice alone, or doing it together with method #1 or #3.

Warning: Sometimes You Will Revert to Your Old Pronunciation!

After some practice, you will notice that your pronunciation sounds better, especially right after a practice session.

But if you stop practicing for a week, or when you’re talking to real people, you may find that you’re speaking with your old accent!

Why is that?

Here’s why: since you have “mispronounced” many English words for a long time, the wrong pronunciation has become a habit. So you can only use the correct pronunciation if you pay attention to your pronunciation.

If you don’t pay attention, you will automatically revert to the old pronunciation because it feels more comfortable and natural.

The only way to overcome this is a lot of repetition. You have to keep using the new pronunciation over and over.

This is why you have to practice a lot in the beginning. Once you become comfortable with your new pronunciation (even in real situations), you can reduce the number of practice sessions.

I know this is hard work, but if you can be patient with this process, your pronunciation will definitely get better.

TIP: Be more mindful when talking in English. Try to catch yourself accidentally speaking with your old pronunciation.

The Limitation of the Parrot Technique

To improve your pronunciation, it’s important to first become aware of your pronunciation mistakes.

Unfortunately, this method is not an effective way to do that.

It’s true that when you’re repeating after a native, you can kind of “hear” yourself speaking, but it’s hard to spot your pronunciation errors in this manner.

So for better results, this method should be combined with the first method or the next one.

Method #3: Do an Accent Inspection

After using methods 1 & 2, your spoken English should be much easier to understand.

You’ll still have a non-native accent (I still do too), which is perfectly fine. The accent should not interfere with your verbal communication at this point.

But what if you still aren’t happy with the results? What if you feel like your accent is still strong and may prevent people from understanding you?

If that’s the case, you need to do an accent inspection.

Here’s how:

1. Play an audio or video recording of a native speaker.
2. Listen to the first sentence, and record yourself saying the exact same words.
3. Compare your recorded sentence with the original. Listen closely and try to sound more like the speaker.

This process is simple but powerful.

After a few sentences, you’ll start to notice some of the differences between your accent and the native accent. You’ll find some habitual mistakes you didn’t even know you have even after using methods 1 and 2.

In my case, I noticed things such as:

• In certain syllables, I spoke in a much higher pitch than native speakers — a key characteristic of the Thai accent. (I’m Thai, by the way.)
• When I spoke fast, I tended to pronounce the “R” sound weakly (or omit the sound altogether).

Once you become aware of these things, it should not be difficult to imitate the correct pronunciation with 100% accuracy!

Why This Method Is so Effective in Improving Your Accent

It’s effective for two reasons.

The obvious one is that spotting your mistakes on a recording is much easier than trying to do so while speaking.

Another reason is the power of comparison.

If you only record yourself and listen to it (without any comparison), you may know that your accent sounds non-native, but you will not know 1) why it sounds non-native and 2) how to correct it.

But when you do a side-by-side comparison between your accent and the native accent, it becomes crystal clear what needs to improve.

My Thoughts on Accent Inspection

When it comes to accent reduction and spotting errors, this method is the best.

Pronunciation lessons can point out mistakes “most people” make, but they cannot point out mistakes “you” make.

An accent inspection, on the other hand, is laser focused on “your” pronunciation errors.

Overall, it’s the best technique to take your pronunciation to the next level.

And unlike the first two methods, you don’t have to do this regularly. A few inspections are enough to gain insight into how to sound more like a native speaker.

The only problem I have with this method is that I have to listen to my voice. (And I hate my voice.)

Action Plan to Improve Your English Pronunciation

You have learned a lot here. Now it’s time to take action.

But there are 3 ways to do it, each has its own pros and cons.

But you’re probably confused right now because there are 3 different methods to choose from.

So should you do them all or choose one? Which method should you do first? Should you do them simultaneously or focus on one method at a time?

If you have these questions, don’t worry.

Here’s what you need to do, step-by-step.

Step 1: Record your current accent

Before you start this journey, you should first record your current accent. (You’ll want to hear it in the future.)

If you don’t know what to say, you can read aloud a few paragraphs from this page.

This step is optional, but I strongly suggest you do it. It’s satisfying and rewarding to see (or “hear” to be more precise) how much you’ve improved.

Step 2: Start using pronunciation lessons

This is where the fun starts.

First, take advantage of the free pronunciation lessons on YouTube. Use them to learn basic pronunciation skills (like how to say words ending with -ed) and to find out about common pronunciation mistakes.

It’s up to you to decide how many days, weeks, or months you spend on these lessons.

For you convenience, I’ve created an English Pronunciation Practice page where I included some of the best pronunciation lessons on YouTube. Feel free to check it out.

Step 3: Practice the Parrot technique

After you feel like you’ve learned quite enough, it’s time to get serious with your practice.

So start doing the Parrot technique.

You can do it and continue to use pronunciation lessons at the same time, or you can focus only on this method. It’s up to you.

Step 4: Assess your improvements

After parroting native speakers for some time, record yourself again.

Listen to both recordings (before and after). Are you satisfied with the results?

If you’re happy with your improved pronunciation, you can gradually reduce the frequency of your pronunciation practice.

For example, if you’ve been learning/practicing every day, start doing it every other day, then once a week, then once a month. (But don’t stop abruptly because your old pronunciation may come back to haunt you.)

Once you’re comfortable with your new pronunciation, and you’re confident that you will not revert to the old one under pressure, there’s nothing else for you to do.

But if you still aren’t satisfied with your progress, move on to the next step.

Step 5: Do an accent inpection

If you listened to your improved accent on the recording and didn’t quite like it, it’s time for drastic measures.

Do an accent inspection to spot some key characteristics of your accent that tell everyone you’re not a native speaker.

After a few inspections, you will have found some habitual mistakes in your pronunciation, which can then be eliminated or minimized (by practicing the Parrot technique and try not to make those errors.)

Thank you for reading this guide. It’s the complete process for improving your English pronunciation. Follow this guide, be patient, and your pronunciation will definitely improve.

You just need to work hard at it.